Answer:
- Must an Employer establish a health department when employing 500 Employees or more?
Pursuant to the Law on Labour Safety and Hygiene, the Employer must assign personnel to medical duties or establish the health department which is responsible for taking care of and managing the Employee health in the enterprise based on scale, nature of work, labour accident risks, occupational diseases and working conditions.[1] To be more specific, pursuant to Decree 39/2016/NĐ-CP of Government, production and business units must establish the health department as follows:[2]
1.1 For production and business units operating in the business lines of processing, preserving aquatic products and products from aquaculture, mining, producing garments, leather, shoes, coal, chemicals, manufacturing products from rubber and plastic, recycling wasted products, environmental hygiene, metal production, building and repairing ships, and producing building materials:
- Having at least 01 healthcare Employee with a vocational qualification if there are less than 300 Employees;
- Having at least 01 doctor/intermediate level physician and 01 healthcare Employee with vocational qualification if there are 300-500 Employees;
- Having at least 01 doctor and maintaining at each shift 01 healthcare Employee with a vocational qualification if there are 500 – 1,000 Employees;
- Organising a healthcare division complying with regulations of the laws on examining and treating if there are at least 1,000 Employees.
1.2 For production and business units operating in other business lines:
- Having at least 01 healthcare Employee with a vocational qualification if there are at least 500 Employees;
- Having at least 01 intermediate level physician and 01 healthcare Employee with a vocational qualification if there are 500 to under 1,000 Employees; and
- Having at least 01 doctor and 01 healthcare Employee if there are 1,000 Employees or more.
- As such, when an Employer hires from 500 to less than 1,000 Employees, such Employer must establish a health department with at least 01 intermediate level physician and 01 healthcare Employee with a vocational qualification. Only an enterprise which operates in a special business line must employ at least 01 doctor and maintain at each shift 01 healthcare Employee with a vocational qualification. However, if the enterprise cannot satisfy the above conditions, such an enterprise can sign a service contract with qualified medical consulting or treating establishments to provide sufficient healthcare Employees and to help deal with emergency cases as those cases happen.
2. The job details for which a doctor must be responsible in an enterprise
Pursuant to the Law on Labour Safety and Hygiene, healthcare Employees, the health department will be responsible for advising, helping the Employer, and directly managing the Employee health as follows:[3]
- Preparing the options and means to provide first aid, emergency services, essential medicines, and emergency cases of labour accidents, provide training sessions on first aid and emergency for the Employees at the enterprise’s premises;
- Planning and holding sessions of health examination, occupational disease examination and detection, medical examinations to determine the decrease of working capacity when the Employees have labour accidents or occupational diseases, nursery, and recovery of working capacity, advising on occupational disease prevention, and fighting method; propose, arrange appropriate jobs for the Employee health;
- Holding sessions of medical examination and treatment at the enterprise’s premises, providing first aid and emergency service for victims of labour accident, and incidents of labour safety and hygiene as prescribed;
- Disseminating information about labour hygiene, preventing, and fighting occupational diseases, improving health at the workplace; inspect the compliance with the regulations on labour hygiene, making plans on prevention and fighting against epidemics, ensuring food safety and hygiene for the Employees; making plans for providing in-kind support for the Employees;
- Setting up and managing information about labour hygiene activities at the workplace; monitor the working environment to assess hazard factors; managing the Employee health documents, and the health documents of the Employees with occupational diseases (if any); and
- Cooperating with the department of labour safety and hygiene to carry out the relevant duties as prescribed by law.
- Therefore, when the Employer hires a full-time doctor/ intermediate level physician to take care of and managing the Employee health, the Employer should clearly state the job details in the descriptions to ensure all the above details are included.
[1] Article 73.1 of Law on Labour Safety and Hygiene
[2] Article 37.1(c) and Article 37.2(b) of Decree 39/2016/ND-CP of the Government dated 15/05/2016
[3] Article 73.2 of Law on Labour Safety and Hygiene
